Mexican Name Finder
IngredientSpanishnationwide

Masa

"dough"

Say it

MAH·sah

Where it comes from

Spanish masa (dough), from Latin massa

What Masa means

Masa is a Mexican ingredient name of Spanish origin meaning "dough". It comes from Spanish masa (dough), from Latin massa. It is pronounced MAH-sah, and it is most associated with the whole country.

Plain Spanish for dough, but in Mexico it means one thing only: ground nixtamalized maize.

This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The words that appear inside dish names: the chiles (ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle), the corn words (nixtamal, masa, tortilla, elote), and the tools (comal, molcajete, metate). Learn these and most menu items decode themselves.

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Masa means dough

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